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Russia said that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will personally head the investigation into the crash. The plane's Black Box recorder has already been located among the smouldering wreckage of the plane, which crashed in woodland.

Conditions around the airport were described as foggy when the Tupolev Tu-154 came down a mile from the airport.

The Queen expressed her sympathy, and Foreign Secretary David Miliband described the crash as a "terrible tragedy".

William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, wrote on Twitter: "Very sad this morning about the death of Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash – a brave man who was interned by the Communists for his beliefs."

The plane was also carrying the governor of Poland's central bank, Slawomir Skrzypek, and many senior officers in the armed forces.

Chief of staff General Franciszek Gagor and Major General Bronislaw, head of operational forces, were killed in the crash alongside the head of land forces, the air force commander, the special forces chief and the navy vice-admiral.

"The leadership of the general staff of the Polish army is meeting today. Faced with this crisis, it will take the appropriate decisions," general staff spokesman Dariusz Niedzielski said.

According to Polish military regulations, deputy commanders automatically take over commanding posts in such emergencies, pending formal nomination.

"There will be a generational shift in the Polish army. It's a process which has already begun but this twist of fate will accelerate it," said Professor Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, a Warsaw-based political analyst.

A presidential election had been due in October but now must be held within two months, according to the constitution.

Mr Kaczynski, 60, had been president since December 2005. He was married with one daughter.

Mr Kaczynski had been flying to Katyn, near Smolensk, to commemorate Russian and Polish victims of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Thousands of Polish prisoners of war and intellectuals were murdered at Katyn by Soviet forces in spring 1940 in an enduring symbol for Poles of their suffering under Soviet rule.

Families of those killed at Katyn were also on board the plane, the Polish government official at the airport said.

In the case of a president's death, the speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, takes over as head of state, Mr Komorowski's assistant Jerzy Smolinski told Reuters.

Poland declared a week of national mourning as shocked citizens flocked to lay flowers and light candles outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.